Absence and Duality
by Grae-Coltrane
Summary: [aegiswap au] A man brought two Blades back from Elysium- one with an emerald core, one with amethyst. Quaestor Amalthus awakens the emerald core, and 500 years later, it's up to Rex, the Driver of the Aegis Malos, to resist the tyranny of Mythra's light on his journey to Elysium.
1. Peace and Security

**A/N: Cross-posted on ao3. The first four chapters have been beta-read, the rest will not be. Please bear with me in terms of formatting, the cross-posting process is a bit tricky.**

* * *

"Sorry, how much?" Rex resists the urge to let his mouth hang open. The money he's being offered is more than he's seen in his life. "You're joking, right?"

"Actually, that only the advance." Chairman Bana pronounces the words with the exact pompous air that one would expect from a man willing to offer an advance of a hundred thousand gold on a job. "Another 100,000 gold upon completion of job." Rex pales, the mere thought of 200,000 gold more than enough incentive to accept.

He stammers, not quite grasping the magnitude of such a sum. "I-I must be dreaming! 200,000 in total?" He straightens his posture, a fire in his eyes. "I'll take it. I hereby swear that I will use every skill I possess to ensure this job's completion."

It's only when the words have left his mouth in a flurry of greed and determination that Rex realizes that he hasn't actually received any information about this job past its pay, as Bana is quick to point out. "You really have skills for job…?"

Rex nearly jumps to reassure Bana, and the Nopon shrugs, asking his attendant to bring the crew in. In the time it takes for the attractive young woman to retrieve the crew, Rex is left to stand there and speculate on what kind of people would be looking to hire a salvager for such a hefty sum. Whatever he expects, it's not the two girls who enter the room, each trailed by a Blade.

The first girl is garbed in a yellow jumpsuit with a lopsided belt that keeps two large hoops on one side and three small knives at the other side of her waist. Her silver hair is short and flawlessly blends into a pair of matching ears, indicating the girl's Gormotti bloodline. To keep her vision clear, there's a shock of color in the form of two yellow ribbons tying her hair out of the way on either side. She is flanked by a large tiger, a beast type Blade with eyes that are human and out of place on what could easily be mistaken for an animal in the wilds if not for the glowing blue core crystal nestled in his fluff.

The next girl—no, woman—that enters the room is likely the prettiest woman Rex has ever seen. She's tall and carries herself with a demure grace that somehow stands unfaltering and proud against the others in the room. Her hair is red, fiery red, and matches the rest of her outfit—striking red against pale skin. Her shoulders are covered in a red, hooded cloak that covers her chest, and the underside of the cape is lined in a shimmery gold fabric that seems to soften her appearance. Her long legs are encased in matching thigh high socks, coupled with shorts that are too short for Rex to keep a clear head.

She's equal parts delicate curves and sharp lines, and Rex has to remind himself that he needs to breathe and stay in the present moment.

Her Blade is intimidating. That's the only word he can think to form after the shock of her, and he realizes that it's because it's strangely fitting when applied to the lady in red. The two are just intimidating. The Blade stands tall behind the woman, glaring at the world with the authority of a man with one purpose that he's never once had difficulty in achieving.

The two Drivers and their Blades step to the side, and it's only now that Rex notices the fifth of his employers, a man reminiscent of a volff, with hard, unflinching eyes and a silver mask. He stands completely secure in himself and his safety, and he is not accompanied by his own Blade.

"There's something we want to haul up," the man speaks, his voice forcing Rex to re-focus. "There were some current shifts, and it showed up in an uncharted area. But it's a long way down." He emphasizes long, as if it were meant to deter the young salvager. Rex merely puffs out his chest, grinning from ear to ear. The thought of 200,000 gold flashes across his mind, filling him with determination.

"Nice, I like a good challenge!"

"Bana offered to assemble team of veterans for job, but this crew very picky. Only want small elite team, and only from Leftheria. That when Bana have stroke of genius, should hire Rex!"

Rex lets out an elated laugh, throwing an arm behind his head. "You made the right choice!" Before he can finish his thought, the Gormotti girl laughs, unable to contain herself.

"A child salvager? You've got to be kidding me," she says, mirth clear in her eyes. "Jin, don't tell me we're going to have to hire some babysitters for this outing, too."

Rex raises an eyebrow at her insinuation, stepping towards her in his annoyance. "What the hell? You look just as much like a kid as I do." It's true—she's shorter than him, her face youthful and matching her voice. He's willing to bet that if they stood facing each other at full height, he'd easily be several inches taller than her, and he'd stake a good thousand gold that they were around the same age.

She's still snickering, eyes wicked as she looks him over once. "At least I wouldn't wet myself at a measly hundred grand."

"What are you trying to say?" He's halfway across the room now, only half thinking about all the gold he might be forfeiting.

Her Blade clears his throat suddenly, bowing his head with a grace that suits his stature. "Rex, was it? I implore you to excuse my lady's discourtesy." Before Rex can respond, his attention is drawn back to the Driver.

Her ears flicker in annoyance, and she lets out a slight growl. "Dromarch! What have I told you about—"

"Nia," the red lady speaks, her voice just as lovely as her appearance. _Focus, Rex._ "You should calm down. He may be young, but it's not difficult to test his prowess without resorting to insults." She looks directly at him for the first time, and Rex's heart threatens to burst. At first he thinks it's because of her beauty and her burning red irises, but then he picks up half a second's dangerous intent before she draws the sword from her waist with lightning speed.

He reacts with a practiced speed, forged after five years of living only under Azurda's guidance, and dodges her sudden lunge, drawing his weapon the moment he gets the chance. It's just in time, too—he has less than a second to block her next swing, and catches it with him own sword, glaring at her with exactly as much intensity as is merited by a sudden ambush. She looks down at him with interest for a long moment that almost makes him feel like he's dying a little bit before she gracefully, effortlessly sends him staggering backwards with a single movement of her sword.

"What the hell're you tryin' to do?" Rex nearly yells, temper flaring. She merely smiles, sheathing the sword without looking.

"Well, you won't die, at least not here," she says simply.

"Pyra! What good is there in beating up a kid like this?" The Gormotti girl, Nia, says, shocked at the woman's actions.

"You were the one who brought up the fact that he didn't seem capable," she says simply, the air crackling around her even after she's sheathed her weapon.

"I said nothing of the sort!" Nia's ears are raised up in her anger, and Rex finds himself appreciating the change in her demeanor. He likes her better now that she's defending him.

"I'm confused. What other concern would you have about his age? It's not as if he would have survived the job if he couldn't even block one of my attacks, anyhow." She looks back at him with an approving glance. He relaxes a bit, sword still firmly in both hands as she surveys him.

"I approve," she says simply. "Skill, and guts. I'm sure that whether you provide good work is out of the question." She nods to Jin and Nia and strides out, followed closely by all except Nia, who lets out a heavy, full-body sigh. When she turns her head to see Rex looking at her, she shoots him a glare and follows after the other two without a second look, only Dromarch offering him the dignity of a goodbye in the form of bowing his head respectfully.

The treatment from Rex's new employers leaves a sour taste in his mouth, which quickly clears along with the air when Bana places a large bag on his desk that rings out with the sweet sound only a hundred thousand gold can make.

Rex thanks him, the shock of the amount fading only for the true weight of his payment to be renewed in his head once he picks up the large bag of gold in one fist. _This must be what power feels like,_ he thinks with a gulp, putting it into the bag on his side and triple checking that everything is secured before going out into the central area of Goldmouth.

The amount doesn't truly sink in until he speaks to Melolo, the noponic woman at central exchange who he normally goes through to send money home. He finds himself leaning over the counter with a conspiratorial whisper when he's forced to relay exactly _how much_ money he'd come into, and finally it sinks in when Melolo nearly shouts the same amount in _her_ shock.

Melolo's excitement for him is nothing compared to the reaction he expects from Gramps when he tells him. "Oi, gramps!" The titan Azurda looks down at him with the almost parental expression Rex had many years to grow accustomed to.

"Back already, Rex?"

"I've got some really great news." He can hardly contain himself, excitement seeping into his voice and sending jitters throughout his body. Rex bounces on his heels, feeling the excitement of being a kid again.

Azurda raises a grassy eyebrow. "Was the haul worth that much?"

"Better!" Rex explains how he'd gotten the job, the payment he'd received, how he'd be leaving for it tonight. Everything Azurda needed to know.

"That doesn't explain a thing! You know nothing about your employers, you took a job without getting any details—"

"Ah, Gramps, you worry too much! I got the important details, I got the advance—"

"There's a girl, isn't there?" Azurda says suddenly, and Rex chokes on his words. Figures he'd pick up on such a subtle notion from Rex after years of raising him.

"What?" He stammers, trying to recover before Azurda can notice, but it's too late.

"What's her name?" Azurda says, pouncing on the notion faster than Rex ever thought possible.

"Th-that's not important! There's no girl!" Rex is flustered now, and deals with the situation the only way 15-year-old boys ever know how—denial and avoidance. "Anyways, I'm going to go gear up for the job and meet them at the docks. You can take a nap or something while I'm gone!"

"Rex!" Azurda's call after the boy falls on deaf ears. He's already run off back inside the guild, not bothering to look back while he gears up for his adventure. "That boy…"

Luck can't shine down on Rex all the time—when he reports to the Maelstrom, he's immediately informed that he has night watch, and given several hours, he decides to sleep until then.

He awakes with just enough time before his shift on watch to socialize a bit. He takes the opportunity, finding his curiosity about his employers far too much to not justify a bit of conversation. His eyes glance over Nia in favor of, preferably, someone nicer. He's certainly not looking for one woman in particular, he just… doesn't notice Nia standing next to Dromarch. Yeah, that's it. Must be a subconscious thing.

He finds Pyra on the starboard side, standing next to her Blade. Her cloak is fluttering in the breeze, and she's put her hood up. In the dim twilight, it's dark enough to see that the bolts of green trimming her thigh highs practically glow, drawing an uncomfortable amount of attention to legs that really don't need it.

Architect, help him.

Rex swallows thickly and approaches only after her Blade takes note of his presence.

"Your name was Rex, right?" She speaks, and he has to remind himself to breathe. "The salvager from Leftheria."

"Right," he says, standing beside her. "And you're… Pyra?"

"Right, Nia must have told you. Sorry she picks on you so much. I think she secretly feels threatened that she's not the youngest anymore."

"Ah, it's fine. Everyone's got their reasons to act the way they do, after all. Your Blade's name was…?"

"Sever," she finishes. Sever nods his head, eyes locked on Rex in a way that almost intimidates him more than the power and beauty personified that stands between them. _Almost_. "He's not as scary as he looks, I promise. He's just a bit protective."

"It's not every day we see someone who can fend off Pyra," Sever says. It's difficult at first for him to recognize that Sever is trying to compliment him. "I look forward to seeing how you handle the work to come."

"Yeah, thanks." He feels a bit embarrassed at the sudden praise, then slightly more embarrassed when he's forced to dismiss the thought that Sever isn't exactly the one he wanted to hear it from.

Pyra tilts her head to one side. "Was there something you needed, Rex? You were put on night watch tonight, right?"

"Right, I was wanting to ask you about the job. What exactly is it that we're…" Rex's words die when his eyes land a familiar-looking Nopon further up the ship who walks behind a box, apparently hiding. "Pupunin?"

"What?"

"Sorry, I have to go check something out. But it was nice talking to you!"

"Oh, alright. See you around, Rex."

The blood rushes to his face momentarily—he shakes his head to re-focus. He's been doing that a lot lately. "Yeah. Y-you too." He waves to her and walks with purpose towards the box he'd watched the Nopon hide behind, only to see an otherwise empty corner.

 _I could've sworn that I saw Pupunin walk here…_ With no Pupunin in sight, Rex sighs and reports to the watchtower for night watch. It's now, some time later, that he finds himself staring out across the cloud sea with concentration and a little bit of that wonder that's never quite left him, even after countless hours spent beneath its surface, even after years of watching it.

He notes movement amongst the clouds, and peers through his binoculars, steeling against a sudden breeze that sends goosebumps across the exposed skin of his arms from the cold. "Is that black ship following us?" He's forced to dismiss the thought almost immediately in light of the faint _clank_ ing behind him.

He turns to look, and it's Nia standing there, apparently in a significantly less antagonistic mood than in his previous interactions with her. "Ugh, it's _way_ too cold up here," she says, almost in disgust, and shrinks away from the wind and into her hood. "My ears're burning, and I've only been out here a few minutes. How can you stand it?"

Rex ignores the chill in favor of the obvious oddity in the situation. "You're up here? Why?"

"I've got a name, you know—"

"Nia, isn't it?"

Her ears shift her hood, Rex presumes as they twitch in response. He can't help but think they're the most honest thing about her expression thus far. "Right. Glad to see you've been paying attention." She walks towards him, filling the empty space next to Rex. "Anyways, they started boozin' below decks. You should go join them, I can take watch."

"Why don't you join them instead?"

"It's not that I hate it," she says, leaning on the railing and running her fingers through her bangs. "I just… don't really like it, either."

He suppresses a grin, mirroring her and leaning up against the railing. They're looking out towards the World Tree now, and Rex's heart swells a little bit at the sight. "Guess it's a good thing you're not a salvager, then."

"Oi. I'm tryin' to be nice here."

"I'm just saying. Salvager's code and all. Swim like a fish, and drink like one too." He holds up a finger.

She clicks her tongue. "You know, you explained it but it still feels like you're making fun of me."

"Nah, not my intention."

"Sure it's not. I haven't exactly been nice to you up to this point." Was she trying to apologize?

He shakes his head. "It's alright. I don't blame you, I am one of the youngest salvagers in Argentum, after all."

"Sure seem to like older women, though," she says, and he coughs.

"What are you talking about?" The darkness of the night cloaks his blush, which he silently thanks the Architect for. Unfortunately for him, it can't do anything for his stutter.

"I saw you talking to Pyra earlier. You're not exactly inconspicuous, you know." She laughs when he fails to form a proper response. "Can't say I blame you. It took me a while to get used to her too."

"Used to her?" He echoes. He's not sure he knows the concept, certainly not with someone like Pyra.

"Yeah, after a while you learn how to not lose your mind over a body like hers."

The realization that she's not talking about being jealous hits Rex like a rampaging armu. "Y-you—"

"Oh, come on," she says when the realization finally crosses his face. "Look at her and tell me you would think anything different if you were a girl."

After a moment of consideration, he nods. "Yeah, I guess you're right."

"Of course I'm right." She's joking around now, grin on her face.

"How long have you been working with them, anyway?"

"Jin and Pyra? A month or so. Why?"

He shrugs. "Just curious. You lot aren't exactly the most transparent people I've worked for. Makes it hard not to wonder about you."

"You're curious, so what you ask is how long I've been working with them, not what it is we're actually doing this job for. You're a strange one, kid."

"My name's Rex. And for the record, I was getting to that."

She pushes her hood back, shaking her head to fix her hair. "It's just as well, Rex. I couldn't tell you anyways. Those two haven't exactly told me what it is we're doing, yet."

"Really? Why're you working with them if they won't even tell you what you're trying to accomplish?" The thought crosses his mind that he's doing the same, but he brushes it off. Maybe they're paying Nia even more than he's getting paid for this job. After all, whatever they need an extra Driver for must be truly fearsome.

She avoids eye contact. "That's… complicated. I'm sure they'll tell me eventually, but for now, I just need to prove myself as trustworthy. I don't have much of an alternative, anyway."

He holds his tongue, sure that what he really wants to say would only push her away, and after he's worked so hard for her to talk to him like he's an actual person. "I don't know your situation, but surely there's something else you could do other than work for them, hoping you're not doing anything illegal."

She scoffs, although Rex can't fathom why. "There's alternatives, but they're not pretty. I'd rather stay where I am for now."

"I don't get why not, but if that's where you want to be, I guess I can't say too much." He decides to relent. At least for now, it's not worth pushing back on the breakthroughs he's making. There's a friend somewhere in Nia, regardless of their initial interaction.

"What about you?"

"Me?"

"Salvaging isn't exactly the occupation of choice, and you're working rather young. Why salvaging? You could've been a mercenary or a merchant, or anything in between. But you chose to stick with a job that's not what I'd call safe or stable."

"Well, that's…" His eyes land on the World Tree rising from the horizon. Its leaves glow faintly against the night sky. They always struck him as extra stars, something to hope for. Somewhere up there is Elysium, the answer to all the wars and fighting down here on Alrest. "It's stable if you know what you're doing."

"But it must've taken you a while to get to the point where you could turn a profit."

Rex recalls a titan he and Azurda watched fall into the cloud sea's depths several days back. The people who used to live on it might have known to evacuate, but he can't help but think about the animals who couldn't have done anything and sunk with it. "You know, I've never liked war. All those innocent people, getting hurt, and for what? Nothing they couldn't have settled without resorting to violence. If there's… a way to reach Elysium, to fix all the world's problems, I can't help but think that it's hidden somewhere beneath our sea of clouds."

She snorts. He only feels a bit stupid for thinking she would take him seriously. "Elysium? You really believe in that guff?"

"Why don't you?" He counters her mirth with his usual positivity. "With the endless field of green Elysium promises, people could stop fighting. We'd have peace, and security. Happiness. Isn't a dream like that worth believing in?"

"But would that be for everyone?" There's something left unsaid in her words, but he decides not to pry. "Would everyone be able to share in that paradise?"

"Of course," he says, shocked at the suggestion that anyone wouldn't be deserving of a happy life atop the world tree. "No one's beyond redemption."

"You know, kid, I used to think people were pretty terrible by nature." He nods, sensing her change in mood. He can't really blame her, not when he's seen how awful people can be. "But you're pretty alright."

When Rex awakes, a man's voice is echoing through his room. After a moment of staring blearily, he gathers that they've arrived at the place and he, alongside the other salvagers on his team, are being called to report. He grabs for his helmet and is out the door the moment he registers the words.

He's on the deck with the other salvagers in minutes, having gotten into his full salvaging suit faster than he's ever had to. As the captain of their team speaks, he stands in the back of the group, checking every potential seam and snap to make sure he won't suffer any sealing issues on his way down. The captain dismisses the salvaging team immediately after he finishes explaining, and Rex obeys, trailing after the others.

The wind is blustery, if the rain and everyone not on the salvaging team are any indication. People have to shield their eyes with their hands just to see, and not for the first time Rex is grateful for the total coverage the salvaging suit affords him. He may not have any sort of peripheral vision, but at least his eyes aren't being assaulted by the weather. He steps off the grating shortly after the others, and as always, looks out over the horizon as his body descends toward the cloud sea.

The plunge is forgiving, and he reaches up and turns on his headlamp once the light of the world above him is officially blocked by the cloud sea. A quick glance around him comforts him as he watches the other salvagers descend, and excitement bubbles up within him at the prospect of finally seeing this ship that was worth shelling out what must've been millions of gold for.

It's some time before Rex has anything visual to occupy his mind. 450 peds is an incredible distance, so he lets his thoughts roam as the pressure of the cloud sea blankets him and his team members.

Finally, a few of the salvagers further down begin swimming down with more fervor, and Rex follows their line of sight to see headlamps glinting off ancient, decaying metal, crawling with all sorts of things, from lost items to the rare plant or creature scuttling across its surface.

As he swims closer to it, flotation device at the ready, Rex notes that the ship doesn't appear to have any sort of way to attach it to a titan. How did this thing use to move? _Ancient civilizations must have had some crazy technology._ How long had this ship been sitting here, waiting for the moment a team of salvagers would flock to it and cranes would force it from its slumber?

He sends a wave up to his team members when his part of the job is completed, and tentatively runs a hand over the metal of the ship. Sure, he can't feel much, what with the thick fabric of his gloves in the way, but he does it anyway, lingering for a moment in appreciation for the feat of engineering laying before him.

Lightning cracks the sky as Rex resurfaces, and the ship isn't far behind him. He's hardly given the chance to take off the extra layer of his salvaging suit when he's approached by Nia, who has an appreciative smile etched on her face. "Excellent work!" She says. "You're not half bad, you know that?"

"Wouldn't be able to make a living off it if I wasn't any good, right?" He puffs his chest out, grinning. The teams make a move to roll out, just as Pyra and Jin pass him.

He's pointedly trying to focus on anything other than Pyra when Jin stops and turns to him. "You. With us."

"Me?"

"Seriously? You're going to drag the kid along?" Nia says, and it's like she lost every ounce of friendliness she'd shown him the previous night.

"Jin has his reasons, Nia," Pyra says gently, one hand holding her hood up against the wind with determination. "If he weren't necessary, we wouldn't bring him. Don't worry so much about his age; just focus on his value."

Architect, she's even more beautiful when she's defending him. Nia can't come up with a worthy response, it seems, so instead she shoots Rex a glare and they follow the other two in silence. They don't get far, however, before Rex instinctively stops just moments before the others do. It's good timing—the door to the ship suddenly flies off, bouncing in the spot Rex might've been standing in had he continued walking and crashing into one of the guard rails on the side. The metal bends and he swears he can hear the guard rails crunch under the pressure.

In the place the door used to be, there's a furious Lysaat daring anyone to make a move or even a noise. Nia steps in front of Rex confidently, rings already in hand, and adopts a battle stance. "Let me show you what a _Driver_ is capable of, Rex," she says, and he already burns to show her up.

Not to be outdone, Rex draws the sword at his waist and joins as he and the group of Drivers launches into battle. His sword cuts shallow, almost pitiful against the onslaught from the others. He sends the sword straight into the space between the lysaat's shell, as he's learned to do from years of them coming up with him during his salvaging trips, and immediately pulls it out and scrambles back when Pyra lunges at the lysaat. He almost feels sorry for the poor thing, having been on the receiving end of Pyra's sword exactly once, but then he's pushed off the fence when her sword engulfs it in flames.

Ruthless. _That's_ the word Rex couldn't place. She's utterly, unapologetically ruthless.

The lysaat lets out a final cry as its body is scorched. The murmur coming from the other people on the ship is just barely audible over the rain— _so that's the power you get when you become a Driver!_ —and Rex isn't quite sure if he's actually hearing someone say it, or if it's just his thoughts against the backdrop of rain.

"Let's go," Pyra says, sheathing her sword and striding towards the now permanently opened doors of the ancient ship. He watches her go for several moments, breathless, and it's Nia's hand on his shoulder that brings him back to Alrest.

She smirks. "She's single, you know." The blush that erupts on Rex's face is enough satisfaction for her—she bursts out laughing. "Come on, best not keep Pyra or Jin waiting."

The ship is dank when Rex steps inside. The air almost chokes him several feet in from its weight, and he takes a moment to re-orient himself in the dizzyingly thick atmosphere. Strangely enough, he seems to be the only one in the group affected by the humidity—even Nia, who he had been sure would have the worst time, what with her wearing that yellow jumpsuit and all. What kind of training had these three gone through, that they were fine in the humidity even though he was the salvager here?

Pyra moves at a surprisingly quick clip, her eyes perpetually focused on her goal, although Rex still isn't quite sure what exactly it is. She's so quick that he nearly trips multiple times trying to keep up with her, although Jin seems to have no issue. Damn tall people and their long legs. Not for the first time, Rex wishes for his growth spurt to come as he finds himself constantly short of breath and doing more work for the same distance.

At one point in his never-ending mission to keep up with the group's unfailing speed, Pyra walks too close to one of the various forms of aggressive wildlife in the ship. It leaps at her, but she slams her sword down on it with enough force that the creature, along with the grating it lands on, both crash to the floor below with cacophonous results. Rex is simultaneously both very glad to be bringing up the rear of this ship investigation and very glad that he's not going to have to actually _fight_ Pyra anytime soon.

Rex is given the honor of carrying around an ether cylinder that Pyra picks up and seems to think is useful to their investigation. It proves to be when she uses it to power a control panel, which opens the door to a slimy, shark-like thing much like the ones Rex learned to avoid after horror stories from a more experienced salvager reached his ears.

Pyra stops a reasonable distance from it, arms crossed. It looks at her almost defiantly, letting out a noise that can only be described as a wet grunt. Rex's hands are already on his sword when Pyra speaks. "Not going to let us through? …very well." She grabs for her sword confidently, not breaking the creature's gaze. "Consider this an act of mercy, then."

The creature, much like the lysaat, goes down in no time thanks to the sheer power and skill Jin, Nia, and Pyra display. A stab of envy hits Rex in perfect synchronization with Jin's killing blow against the creature. Jin slowly removes his sword with cold eyes, and Rex shudders as the creature lets out its final cries. It's not quite that Rex wants the power, or the coldness that permeates Jin's every action, but it would be nice, he thinks, to have enough power to be useful to the people he works for.

He wordlessly follows the others to a door at the end of the room, which is unusually ornate. Perfectly in the center is a raised circle, on which a strange-looking symbol that reminds Rex of a flame has been engraved. "Pyra, look," Jin says, his voice the least confrontational Rex has ever heard it.

Pyra steps forward. "There's no mistaking it," she says. "Addam's crest."

"Addam's… crest?" Rex echoes. A strange sense of foreboding washes over him suddenly. "Maybe we shouldn't be here."

"No, this is exactly where we need to be," Jin says. "This is what we were looking for."

"Rex, could you please open this door for us?" Pyra asks.

"Me? Why can't any of you do it?" The idea is nothing but strange to him. Is this really what they brought him along for? To open a door?

Jin appears frustrated but only shakes his head. "You're Leftherian, aren't you? That door will only open for one of you."

"I don't really get it, but I guess I'll open it." He walks up to the door and surveys it with a watchful eye, curiously pressing a single gloved hand against the crest. To his surprise, it glows blue the moment his hand touches it, the door itself sliding back and out of the way within moments. The foreboding feeling only grows stronger as he steps into the room, which appears untouched by both time and the Cloud Sea itself, save for the strange fog that sits just above the floor.

The area around his feet glows a faint green each time his foot hits the ground. Sure, green is typically a comforting color, but every step towards the second door in front of him just feels like another red flag. "Wait!" Pyra speaks suddenly. Rex turns to look at her; she's standing still, mostly focused on Nia, who appears to have rushed forward to follow him. "Open the second door, too, please." The last person he wants to annoy with his need to know what's going on is Pyra, so he nods and watches as a second door lights up and hides in response to his touch.

The fog diffuses before his eyes, and the room he walks into is mostly empty, save for a sword and a tank in the center of the room. The sword is jet black and appears dormant. There is a crystal embedded just above the hilt that glints against what little light is in the room, like shining obsidian.

He's vaguely aware of the sound of the others walking into the room behind him, but his eyes follow the direction the sword's hilt points, to the tank barely large enough to contain a muscular man who appears to be sleeping. Just above his crossed arms sits a purple core crystal that mirrors the one in the sword. _Wait… he's a Blade. What's a Blade doing down here? Why isn't his core crystal blue like Blades usually have?_

As he stares up at the mysterious man, the sense of foreboding he'd felt fades away in tandem with a soft purple glow that alights on his face. He looks back down at the sword, which appears to be the source; it's glowing brighter every second, and before he realizes it, he's reaching to touch the glowing crystal.

"Rex, don't touch that!" Pyra's words are no deterrent for a man entranced by a sword. He closes the gap, and the crystal responds to his touch much in the way the doors had—it begins glowing with more intensity immediately. The purple washes over the room until it's white hot, but upon further consideration, the explosion of white and purple at the edges of his vision might have something more to do with the sword that's been plunged through his back.

"If you knew what was coming, you'd be thanking me," Jin says. All Rex hears, however, is Pyra's voice repeating _consider this an act of mercy_ at the back of his mind as the glow, along with the rest of his vision, fades.


	2. Darkness

"Jin, what the hell?" Nia's voice is nothing short of horrified as Rex crumples to the floor. Jin is unaffected, adjusting his mask and sheathing his sword calmly. Pyra strides past the corpse— _Architect, he's already dead_ —and pulls down the tank. "Why did you kill him?"

"It's a shame," Pyra agrees as she helps lower the tank to Jin. "I suppose it was for the best, however."

"For the _best_? What's 'for the best' about killin' an innocent kid? He was fifteen!" She clenches her fists until they shake. Dromarch tries to calm her, but she's unreceptive and only glances at him in acknowledgement.

"We were going to kill him anyway," Jin says.

"Maybe so, but perhaps we should have warned her," Pyra says. She considers her words for a moment, then walks over to Rex's body. "If it upsets you so much, Nia, then call the Monoceros. We can make sure his body gets sent back to Leftheria, but we can't un-kill him." Nia doesn't reply.

"Nia?"

"I'll call the Monoceros," she says finally, fists clenched.

"Thank you." Pyra watches Nia stalk off. When she's a reasonable distance away from the others, Pyra returns to her work. Nia is left to steep in outrage in near peace, excepting for Dromarch, who quietly does his best to work her through her shock. Aside from him, the room is silent. Silent like the heartbeat of a boy who just happened to be in the wrong place, at the wrong time, with the wrong people.

Nia wants to throw up.

Green. The world surrounding him as his eyes open is nothing but green, at least until he gets his face out of the grass. His chest aches, although he can't quite figure out why. He pushes himself up, taking in the area around him.

He's sitting in a field at the foot of a gentle slope. At the top of the slope is a tree, under which someone is silhouetted against a cloudless sky. They appear to be the only person around, unless he wants to venture into the line of trees some distance behind him in hopes of finding other human life. From somewhere in the distance, a bell echoes methodically. It's almost eerie, how it shows no sign of slowing. He'd go mad, listening to that every day of his life.

He approaches the person on the hill, finding that they're really his only choice for figuring out, well, everything. "Um, excuse me?"

Now that he's a little closer to the person, he can see that he's a rather muscular (and honestly intimidating) man. He's got a core crystal in his chest when he turns, although it's strange that it's purple instead of blue. Where has he seen a purple core crystal before? He should definitely remember such a strange Blade, yet...

"It's nice to meet you," he says. "I'd tell you my name, but… I can't seem to remember much of anything right now. Do you… know where we are?" For some reason he can't place, the strange Blade is strikingly familiar. Then again, he can't really seem to place much of anything in his mind right now.

"You're Rex," he says. Rex accepts it as fact, because really, he has nothing to dispute it, and it doesn't feel incorrect. "You're probably disoriented."

Disoriented doesn't even begin to cover it. He feels hollow where the ache in his torso emanates from, and the longer he looks at this place, the more unfamiliar it seems. As if he _should_ know where this place is, but it's just escaped him completely. "Yeah, I guess I am. Have we met before? I know you, I think."

"My name is Malos. We'll get through this quicker if you just let me talk and ask any other questions when I'm done."

Seems reasonable. Even if it weren't, Rex gets the feeling that it's better for him to just listen. "This is Elysium, or a reconstruction of it at least. It was created from my memories. I don't know how you found me on that ship, but shortly after we came into contact, you were murdered by Jin. Stabbed directly through the heart. I can—"

" _Murdered_!?" Suddenly, the hollow ache makes sense to Rex; his hand flies to his chest, where a scar-like ridge raises up. Now, he distinctly remembers seeing a sword, Jin's sword, emerging from his chest as if he'd been cutting through fabric. Memories flash through his head, causing him to sink to his knees in horror. Memories of the sword are too vivid and too dull all at once, and Rex is vaguely aware of the fact that he's saying something. His mind is racing too much to recognize his own words.

Malos waits for Rex's words to slow and his breathing to steady before he speaks. "Are you done? Because I wasn't." All Rex can do is stare in silence, hand still on the scar. "Stop making such a big deal about it. I can bring you back to life by giving you half of my lifeforce, but I'll need you to promise me something."

Rex has to force himself to respond. "You're the Blade we found in the ship, aren't you?" The man nods. "And you can… bring me back?" Another nod. "…What do you want me to do?"

"Take me to the Elysium in Alrest."

"Elysium? In Alrest?" His head swims with the realization that his dreams could be more than dreams. Now that he's not quite so overwhelmed by his own death, he looks around Elysium with wonder. He stands back up, taking in the area and committing it to memory.

"At the top of the world tree." He nods.

Rex considers the idea. There's no reason for him not to trust Malos, and he'd be lying to himself if he said that both reaching Elysium and not being dead were very attractive concepts. "I'll do it. Let's reach Elysium together."

"Good. Now, you're going to have to touch my core crystal. If you can reach it, I mean." He grins, and it's oddly comforting to know that this guy can actually joke around and smile. He doesn't exactly seem like the type. (He could, however, do without being picked on for his height. It's not his fault that he hasn't hit his growth spurt yet.)

Rex nods and reaches up to the purple crystal, with little trouble thanks to Malos leaning down a bit. He recoils when the crystal begins glowing immediately. It's a bit too similar to the way the sword reacted to his touch, and for a moment, he's almost expecting to be killed all over again.

The light overtakes him again, growing so bright that it's almost dark. The ache in his chest ebbs away as the light from Malos's core focuses itself on it, and he gets one last glimpse of Elysium before he faints.

Nia feels hollow. The deaths of people she deals with after joining the ranks of Torna aren't exactly a new experience, but before, she was willing to believe that they'd all deserved it for one reason or another. Willing to believe that even if she opposed it, she really had no other choice in the matter, and besides, most humans would never bother to defend her in the opposite situation. It had just seemed foolish to defend those who would leave her behind.

Rex wouldn't have left her behind. The thought runs through her head too many times as she follows the others out of the ship. Nia knows Pyra and her... other half are strong, but she never expected to see her carry that capsule and the man inside on one shoulder and casually drape a corpse over it. She's hardly even out of breath.

Nia doesn't realize she's being spoken to until Dromarch nudges her hand. "My lady, you're being addressed."

"Sorry, what? I wasn't listening." She tries to sound calm, tries to sound like things are fine, but her voice still sounds more like cold steel than anything.

"Are you still mad?" Pyra asks.

Nia's ears flick back. "Of course I'm mad, Rex didn't..."

"Maybe that was a stupid question. You can deal with your emotions later. Or, perhaps, you could do what I asked and deal with the bystanders." There's Pyra's aggression again. Sometimes, Nia swears that she's just letting her other half talk for her.

"D-deal with the bystanders? You don't mean..." Architect, her powers are for healing, not slaughtering people who just wanted to make some gold to support themselves with. It's not like she can't, but...

"Nia..." Jin's tone is one of warning as he decides to step into the conversation, but he never finishes his thought. The capsule Pyra carries begins sucking in the light around it at the same moment that something starts materializing near Rex's hand. For a second, Nia has a shred of hope that his hand is twitching, but if it is, it stops when Pyra yells for Sever to move and _launches_ both the capsule and the boy over his head, landing the two a good many feet away.

Nia can't help but be overwhelmed with shock. Surely that can't have been easy, but instead of showing any substantial exertion from flinging what must have been several hundred pounds a reasonable distance away, Pyra stands with her eyes trained on the capsule and the boy. The former is now enshrouded in darkness, which is eating away at everything it touches.

"Jin," Pyra says, holding a hand up to the man. He stops just as his fingers brush the hilt of his sword. "Let _her_ handle this."

Nia watches as Pyra gives way to her other half in a wash of light. Where previously Pyra stood, Mythra is poised to attack, now garbed in pure white instead of Pyra's fiery red. Pyra rarely removes the cloak Mythra discards, but now that she has, Nia can see the armor plate fastened across her chest, covering a core crystal she's never seen, only heard of.

Light flashes from near where Rex's corpse landed, and moments later, he's no longer a corpse. "Great," Mythra says. "Now he's gone and made himself the Aegis's Driver, and we'll have to kill him all over again."

Nia's not sure what Mythra means by the Aegis's Driver, but she knows by now that if Jin is standing down and Mythra is taking over for Pyra, there's not much question about their determination to kill this boy.

As Rex steadies himself on his own two feet, the capsule explodes. It had been melting against the darkness covering it, but apparently that wasn't enough, as there's a column of darkness reaching into the sky. It arcs downwards, onto an area overlooking the deck. The bystanders have taken this as their cue to escape, unsure what's really going on but knowing they don't want to be a part of it. That's probably smart. Nia kind of wishes she could run, too.

When the column of darkness clears, the Blade stands, rolling his shoulders casually. Nia wonders if he knows the situation he's in, or that he's perhaps incurred the wrath of the two scariest people Nia's ever met.

At some point in the focus on the Blade's frankly dramatic entrance, Rex has fully regained his bearings and now holds a sword that glints black in the rain. "Isn't it pretty underhanded to stab someone in the back?" He looks at least a little bit pissed off, and Nia doesn't blame him. She'd be pretty mad if she was suddenly stabbed for one small transgression, too.

More importantly, how is Rex alive? Jin's never failed to kill anyone he intended to before.

"Rex, keep your guard up," the Blade says.

"Got it."

"You... can't be," Mythra growls, glancing between Rex and the Blade. "Malos, you should've just stayed asleep and made things easier for everyone. You're a clever hider, though. We went through a lot to track you down."

Malos looks down on Mythra in more ways than one, thanks to his vantage point. "And here I thought you were merciful enough to let me sleep for a while longer. Unfortunately for you, I'm not interested in helping you just because you found me, Mythra."

She clicks her tongue and saunters toward him. "That _is_ unfortunate. I'd hoped we could make this easy from here on out."

"Sorry, but we're not really interested in just letting you trample whoever you want without a fight!" Rex is already sprinting into battle as he speaks, and Architect, he's going to get himself killed again rushing in like that—

He locks blades with Mythra, and for a moment, they're in a tense stalemate. At least, until Mythra makes a swipe at him. He virtually dances around it, twisting to go after Mythra again.

Nia can't watch this. "Mythra, leave him! He's a kid, you've got more important things to focus on!"

"Don't be foolish, Nia," Mythra responds. "This kid is just going to make everything difficult!" She punctuates her sentence with a well-placed hit that sends Rex staggering backwards a few feet.

He's otherwise unfazed. He simply pushes back, and between the two, there's a constant flurry of blows where neither party is quite landing on the other. Mythra passes off her blade to Sever, who cackles as he unleashes a devastating amount of ether that might actually kill the boy.

When the ether clears, Malos is standing between Rex and Mythra, holding up a protective shield of ether with a glare. "Thanks." Rex preps himself to leap right back into the fray.

"Thank me when we're done with this," Malos says, posture tense and perhaps a bit terrible. Nia's back aches just looking at it; he's somehow leaning forward and back at the same time.

In the time it took Nia to note Malos's terrible posture, Mythra has successfully sent Rex's body flying and disarmed him. His sword lands dangerously close to the edge of the ship, and he ends up several feet away. If he survives this, he's going to have one hell of a collection of wounds to tend to.

He tries to push himself up to go pick up his sword, but not before Mythra reaches him, slashing wildly. Nia cringes when Mythra cuts into his arm enough to draw blood. Where's Malos? What's he doing while his Driver is—

There he is. He's locked in a scuffle with Sever, who is remarkably good at holding his attention. He seems to recognize the danger his Driver is in, but Sever refuses to let him go.

Rex has been forced to back up equally dangerously close to the edge of the ship as his sword, thanks to Mythra's insistent attacks. She hasn't even let him get to his feet.

Nia _can't_ watch this. She's on Dromarch's back and fast approaching Mythra and Rex before she quite registers it herself. Dromarch sends a burst of ether at Mythra, enough to distract her and force her to back away from the boy.

They take the opening, placing themselves between Mythra and Rex. Dromarch growls wordlessly, leaving the talking to Nia. "Leave him, Mythra. You're tryin' to kill an innocent kid!"

"Kill him? No, Nia, I'm _helping_ him," Mythra says. "The longer this boy lives as the Aegis's Driver, the more he's going to wish you'd have let me kill him, I guarantee you that much. I'm just trying to be merciful."

" _Merciful_?" She has the audacity to claim mercy in a situation like this? "You can't be serious. What's merciful about murdering a kid?"

"He's young, but he can fight back. If he were just a kid, then sure, I'd let him live."

"Then let him live." This is the most conviction she's spoken with in what feels like years. "Can't you see that you don't need to kill him?"

"Nia, I'm starting to get tired of all of your mindless backtalk," Mythra says. She moves at a speed that rivals Jin's, and there's no time to respond before the flat side of her sword is pressed into Nia's shoulder as a warning. "You don't even have the first clue who you're defending." With a single swipe of the sword, Nia's sent flying off the ship. Rex's sword joins her in her descent, and she barely manages to close her fingers around it as she falls.

The Cloud Sea races towards her. She never did like the way it feels to swim in it, but it seems like she's got no other choice.

 _Or not_ , she thinks when her body lurches to a stop thanks to the sudden grip on her arm. She cries out at the immediate effects: every joint in her arm, from her wrist to shoulder, blossoms with pain. Her wrist, especially, protests with a sickening noise. It's the only thing keeping Rex from dropping her, but she'd be a bit more grateful if it didn't almost definitely break from the stress of the job.

"Rex, you—" She hisses when she slips a little bit. Every shift, breath, and movement only seems to worsen the pain.

"Hold on, Nia, I've got you," he says.

She tries to grab his wrist, but the movement of her fingers immediately floods her vision with tears. "I-I can't grab on. My wrist is—" She never finishes her sentence. The grappling hook that hold Rex and Nia stutters, and the pain is so unbearable that she blacks out a little bit. With horror, her vision clears to show her the Monoceros as it pulls up to the side of the ship, guns at the ready. _Can't say I had a nice run_.

She can hardly comprehend what's happening anymore. Maybe it's not worth it to hold on to her consciousness and watch the massacre that's about to unfold. In fact, when the guns move their aim to target them, specifically, she's convinced of this. If Rex can get them out of this alive, then he can do it without her help, anyway. She lets go of her last shred of consciousness.

Malos awakes with a groan. Azurda had some damn good timing, swooping in when he did. If not for them, he's not sure he'd be waking up at all. The first thing he notices is that everything is very green. The next noteworthy thing is the Gormotti sitting nearby, pulling the top of her jumpsuit off to reveal a dark undershirt and one seriously fucked up arm.

She appears to be the girl who stepped in during his and Rex's fight against Mythra earlier. But didn't she have a Blade with her…? The Blade is nowhere in sight, leaving only the girl. Come to think of it, he should probably say something before she finishes undressing herself.

"Oh, you're awake," she says when he pushes himself up and stretches. "Malos, right?"

"Yeah. You're…" It's only now he realizes he never got her name. Not like there was time, anyhow.

"Nia. Can I ask what happened after I passed out? I wasn't expecting to wake up at all." She runs some pond water over her arm, hissing when it seeps into several small cuts. He assumes they're from the fall, although he's surprised that they're not worse. They hardly count as scratches. She appears to be washing off the blood, but she should probably be more worried about what might be in that water.

"After Rex grabbed you, Azurda flew in and got us out of that situation. He got hurt pretty bad by that ship that showed up. Barely made it here before crash landing. Not sure where he landed, though, or Rex for that matter." There's no sign of them, except for some messed up trees where he figures Azurda must have had a rough landing.

"With any luck, he's with Dromarch. Mythra said Rex was your Driver now, can't you sense him? Dromarch's always been able to find me."

Right. Rex is his Driver now. He focuses, and can indeed sense the general direction his Driver is in. It's been a while since he's had a Driver to be separated from, let alone had a need to track him down. "They're moving. Before you try to go looking for your Blade, were you wanting to give that arm any more attention? Not sure what happened to it, but that doesn't look great."

"When Rex grabbed me. Arms weren't really meant to be the only thing between you and drowning in the Cloud Sea, especially not that fast." She finishes tying off the top part of her jumpsuit. "It's just dislocated a bit, and I think bruised from the landing. The cuts won't be an issue. If I can find Dromarch I can heal myself, so there's not much need to worry about it."

A 'bit' might be something of an understatement in reference to her dislocation. Malos is no expert, but he's pretty sure that's her bones creating strange lumps, and she's messed up at every part of the arm. The wrist is completely purple, and bruises crawl from her wrist to under her tank top.

She pulls off her glove with a wince. Father, she can hardly even do that without looking like she's about to cry. "Then let's find your Blade sooner rather than later. Come on."

"I can stay here while you look," she says. Is she stupid? Like hell he's leaving some tiny girl in an unknown forest with an arm she can hardly move and no way to defend herself.

"Did I make it seem like it was an option? Come on, Nia, you can't seriously think you can fend for yourself out here." She's lucky they haven't been attacked by something already.

"I'm not entirely defenseless, you know." She gestures to the row of small knives attached to her belt. He's not impressed.

"You're going to defend yourself with one arm and a set of filet knives?" Seriously, what is she thinking? She's either really stupid, or she's got some reason to keep from coming with him. If it's the latter, well, he'll figure it out soon enough.

She finally relents when she realizes that there's nothing she can say to change his mind. "Alright, so which way are we going, then?"

He leads the way to a bridge, making a point to avoid any monsters more for Nia's sake than his own. They're forced to stop at the giant tree that lays across the bridge, obstructing any hopes of moving forward. Rex is just on the other side of it, and an unfamiliar voice is with him. He assumes it's Nia's Blade, but he doesn't bother asking.

"…We could try to climb it?" Nia suggests. "I don't see any way around it, and if they climbed over we'd just have to go back across to get out of here."

"Can you even move your arm?" She doesn't respond. He shrugs his shoulders, feeling his power rush to life in his fingertips. A tree is nothing he can't handle. "Everyone stand back a second." He raises his voice so hopefully the two standing on the other side can hear him.

"What are you going to do, throw it?" She sounds like she's joking, but he gets the feeling that she thinks he would actually be able to throw the thing. His solution is a bit more, say, destructive.

"Just stand clear. You don't want to know what happens if someone gets caught in this." His tone is enough to convince her. She takes several steps back, and he immediately pulls his fist back and punches the tree. Nia watches in awe as his power covers washes over it and the wood crumbles away. Moments later, the tree trunk has been reduced to mere splinters that fall into the Cloud Sea below.

"Malos! Nia! Good to see you! What, er, what happened to the tree just now…?" Rex says when the dust clears.

"Don't worry about it," Malos says. "It's an extension of my powers."

"Right." Rex's eyes drift to Nia's arm, and he jumps slightly at the sight. "Nia, is your arm okay? That doesn't look great."

"Yeah, I'll be fine. Can't really do much with it right now, but it'll be healed up soon enough. Just need to get somewhere safe, pop some stuff back into place, and wait it out."

"Don't suppose you know how we'd go about getting out of here? Dromarch says you used to live here, so..."

Nia frowns. "We're pretty close to Gormott's capital," she says. She climbs onto Dromarch's back without a word between either of them. "If we stay here long enough, we'll be swallowed up by the Cloud Sea. I can take you to Torigoth, if you'll follow me."

"My lady, please consider resting first. Your arm..." Dromarch does his best to look up at her. At least her Blade has sense.

"Say, what happened to that big guy that saved us, by the way?" Nia appears unwilling to listen to reason.

"Are you talking about me?" A familiar voice comes from Rex's helmet, and moments later a tiny head pops out.

"Azurda, what...?" That can't seriously be Azurda.

"Good to see you again, Malos," the titan says. "Have you been keeping well?"

"What happened to you?" He cuts straight to the chase; small talk can wait for when they have more information.

"Patience is a virtue, Malos," he says. "We can discuss everything once we've found somewhere to rest. After all, there's much more to discuss than my secrets to looking young."

Patience his ass, clearly _something_ has gone wrong or Azurda wouldn't look like an actual infantile titan. Waiting only draws out the inevitable.

"So then, we start walking towards the capital, you said Torigoth? And once it gets dark, we'll rest for the night," Rex says. "When we stop to rest, we can get everyone up to speed on, well, everything that's happened since yesterday. Although, Nia, are you sure you're okay to keep going?"

Malos can see why he asks—it looks better than when he last saw it, but there's an uncomfortable amount of swelling and the skin is still bruised where it isn't starkly pale. He gets the impression that Nia doesn't have her arms in the sun very often. The thought crosses his mind that the scrapes from earlier appear to be totally gone now. Maybe he's still a bit off from five hundred years of rest, but honestly, he doubts even that's enough to start hallucinating.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she says. She shifts uncomfortably, grabbing on to part of Dromarch's mane and nodding to him. He walks past Rex and sits patiently. "Let's go, it's already starting to get dark and we want to find a good place to stop sooner rather than later." Couldn't she not move it only a few minutes ago? Could she even move her fingers earlier?

He can worry about Nia's poorly hidden secrets later. For now, the others have started off into the woods, so he follows them closely and keeps an eye out for anything dangerous.

Nia stops at the head of a slope, which ends abruptly in what appears to be the trunk of a tree. Honestly, she's lucky she's got Rex and Malos with her. She's somehow managed to catch the attention of fifteen separate creatures since leaving the bridge, and she'd be dead with the state her arm is in.

"We're going to have to climb up here to make it to the upper level," she says, and Malos gives her a look that he likes to think clearly reads _what the hell are you thinking you can't climb that._ If she notices, she chooses to ignore it in favor of burying her hands in Dromarch's mane even tighter. It's easily a thirty foot climb, and it's not like someone can carry her up while climbing at the same time. "It's getting dark, so we can set up camp at the halfway point."

He studies the tree she's talking about. There is a spot large enough for the five of them to camp for the night that appears to be mostly devoid of anything that might be willing to attack them when they settle down, but it's still halfway up the tree.

At least Rex is apparently capable of seeing reason. "Nia, are you sure you—"

"Dromarch?" Nia looks at him questioningly, ignoring all the _reasonable_ members of this band of travelers in favor of some form of largely unspoken communication with her Blade.

He bows his head briefly. "Are you ready, my lady?" She makes an affirmative noise, and he latches onto the side of the tree with his claws. In what must be only a few minutes, he climbs to the middle ledge with Nia clinging to his back and pulls himself up as the three on the ground simply stare at them in something like shock.

 _This girl is somehow both smarter and stupider than I gave her credit for._

Nia and Dromarch look over the ledge moments later. "Well, are you coming or not? We've not got all night, and the three of you have some explaining to do once we get the fire going."

Malos shares a look with Rex, who's still too shocked at Nia's problem solving to speak. "Come on," Malos says, walking to the side of the tree and studying it for a good spot to start climbing. "The sooner we start climbing this thing, the sooner we can all get some answers."

The fire crackles as Rex and Malos finish their part on updating everyone. Rex is glad that it's dark now, even if it means they have to camp in a forest instead of someplace safer. Now that there's less light and it's colder, it's harder to see Nia's messed up arm. He suppresses a shudder at the thought of it, the way her skin glared with angry, sprawling bruises. He almost wants to apologize to her; after all, she got those when he grabbed her, didn't she?

They'd hunted down a few smaller creatures for food, and with Dromarch's help, they'd identified some wild plants that were safe to eat and cook over the fire. Dromarch had been the most helpful in getting enough food for everyone, while Nia was insistent on screening every piece of wood Rex or Malos collected before adding it to the pile of firewood. She'd claimed that certain leaves could kill them if they burnt them and inhaled the smoke in any capacity. (Rex didn't really believe her claim, but it was better to be safe than sorry.)

Malos leans back on his elbows, shifting to make himself comfortable. "I should ask. How much do you actually know about me, Rex?" he asks.

Rex doesn't quite understand the question. "What do you mean? We just met yesterday." Was he supposed to have heard of Malos before?

Gramps flutters up and sits on Rex's shoulder. "Rex doesn't know much about the events of the Aegis War, if that's your concern. In fact, most stories about the Aegis are more obscure among non-Drivers."

"The Aegis War? That big war five hundred years ago?" Rex tilts his head. He doesn't much like the thought of war. Too many innocent people dying for it _not_ to leave a bad taste in his mouth. "Can't say I know much about it, no."

Malos sighs, although Rex can't fathom why. Did he say something wrong?

"Five hundred years ago, when Mythra set out to destroy Alrest, a man named Addam awakened Malos to stop her," Gramps said. "Unfortunately, there were many casualties, and three continents were destroyed in the heat of battle. Addam and his allies barely managed to quell Mythra's fury."

"After everything quieted, I talked with Addam and decided the best way to keep her from achieving her goals was to keep her from getting to me," Malos said. "Her core's not whole, and she can't restore it by herself. There's maybe two ways to fix it, and both of them require my cooperation to pull off."

Rex grimaces. "So, if I hadn't woken you up…" Maybe he shouldn't be thinking about the fact that there would be no danger if not, inadvertently, for him.

"I believe it was for the better that you were there, Rex," Dromarch says, lifting his head only barely to speak so as not to disturb Nia's position. She'd asked Malos to help her pop the displaced joints back into place earlier, but it doesn't seem to have helped much, if the way she winces every time her arm shifts is a good indicator. "Without your presence, my lady and I would likely still be among their ranks, and they'd have Malos to achieve their goals with."

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Rex smiles. "Thanks. By the way, Nia, what happened to Pyra? I didn't see her on the ship after I…" The thought of his own death sends chills down his spine in the worst way. He doesn't want to finish his sentence.

"Who the hell is Pyra?" Malos raises an eyebrow.

"Oh, right, you wouldn't know much, Rex," she says. "Pyra's like… Mythra's weakened form, I think. They never told me much, but Mythra never stays like that for long before going back to just being Pyra. I've seen her twice before, and only because she was in a hurry. Honestly, it's a miracle any of us managed to survive her."

"So she's like… two girls in a single body? How does that even work?"

"It's more likely that Pyra is an extension of Mythra's powers," Gramps says.

"Can't imagine she _wouldn't_ try something like that to hide, since the whole world must have known what Mythra looked like after everything that happened. I could probably pull that off, if I needed to and had the time to figure it out."

"If everything we needed to talk about has been covered, might I suggest we get some rest?" Gramps says. Rex can't help but agree. His body aches from the fight and the climb, and it'll take him quite some time to get comfortable with the bruises he incurred in the heat of battle.

"Yeah. I'm exhausted," Rex says. Nia and Dromarch agree as well, although Malos seems a bit more reluctant to head to sleep.

"Something wrong?" Rex asks him.

Malos only shakes his head. "I've been asleep for five hundred years, I'm just not that tired," he explains when Rex only stares at him incredulously. "You should rest, I'll keep watch."

It's enough to satisfy Rex, who nods and shifts himself to find a comfortable spot on the ground. It's difficult, with rocks pressing into tender spots no matter how he lays, but eventually, the fatigue overpowers the discomfort. He falls into a light, fitful sleep.

Rex wakes up feeling no more rested than he had before. As he stretches in the sunlight, he tries to shake off the nightmares of a volff-like man with a sword watching him. Every muscle in his body complains in protest. He envies Nia, who's coming to and pushing herself up from where she laid snuggled up to Dromarch all night. She must have had no problems getting comfortable.

Nia yawns with her whole body, stretching both arms and both legs in tandem with her elongated breath. "Mornin'," she says at the tail end of her yawn, rolling her neck lazily. She speaks quietly, noting that Malos, at some point, had apparently gone to sleep. Every so often, he shifts or twitches, never quite settling peacefully.

"How's your arm?" Rex asks. He pulls the outer parts of his salvager suit on, having removed them for better comfort over the night.

She grins, "Much better." To make her point, she extends the arm in question. Rex immediately cringes at the thought, but she doesn't even wince at the movement.

After Malos helped her last night, there's no more weird bumps where bone presses against skin and shouldn't. What bruises haven't already faded appear to vanish before his eyes, but surely that's just a trick of the light, with the way the sunlight dances through the trees.

"I've always been a fast healer," she explains as Malos begins to stir. Rex feels a pang of guilt for waking him—maybe they should have walked a little further away so he could sleep longer.

It's too late for maybes, though. Malos pushes himself to his feet, glare etched on his face but aimed at no one in particular.

"Sorry, Malos. We didn't wake you up, did we?" Rex asks. Malos looks at him in silence for a moment that stretches into what feels like a year.

"No, I was awake," he says finally. "We should get moving soon anyway."

"Did you… did you sleep okay?"

"Didn't," Malos grunts.

"Oh," he says. "I'm sorry to hear that. If it helps, I didn't sleep great either." There's several moments of painful silence as Malos considers Rex's attempts at consoling him, then he merely nods at him in acknowledgement.

"Let's get moving."

"Okay," Nia says. "Everyone ready to go?" She's leaned against the tree trunk they've got to climb to make it out of the lower level, having made the smart decision to take Dromarch and avoid the awkward conversation Rex is trying to have. Five years of working, and he can salvage everything but a conversation, apparently.

When the others are ready, she starts climbing the tree with scary precision, hardly bothered by anything like the problems Rex had trying to climb the other tree last night. Malos doesn't follow Rex when he prepares himself for the climb.

"Is everything alright, Malos?" He asks, stopping at the base of the tree. Malos doesn't respond, only watches Nia climb like she's unbothered by the exertion. "Malos?"

He shakes his head. "Nothing. Come on, let's get moving." He brushes past Rex, beginning the climb without another word. Rex sighs and turns his attention back to the tree, not thrilled about the climb he faces.

Everyone else makes it to the top with a minimum of slips or struggles. Not for the first time, Rex is grateful for his gloves, especially now that he knows what it feels like to lose all strength past his elbow and barely be able to hold on. If not for the spikes in his boots, he might have broken a leg. Malos has to pull him up at the top, and Rex nearly collapses once he gets on solid ground.

Malos scoffs. "We're going to have to work on your climbing strength if we're going to make it to Elysium."

"Don't make fun of me, it's not like there's a lot of climbing involved with salvaging!" It's true; the Cloud Sea isn't exactly resistant to swimming through, and he had a crane to haul things up from its bed. The most strength required is in stuff like prying boxes open and carrying things between the port and central exchange. Climbing, however, is a full-body exercise, and not one he's ever thought to train for.

He frowns. Sure, he didn't have any reason to really be prepared for this kind of exertion, but it still stings that he seems to be the only one affected by the climb. Nia waits at an overlook at the end of the path, idly patting Dromarch's head, but even from here, Rex can see that she's perfectly fine, if not slightly out of breath.

After several minutes of sitting on the ground and trying to catch his breath, Rex walks to the overlook, where Malos has joined Nia in waiting for Rex.

The sight of the sprawling, verdant plains is enough to take Rex's breath away again. He'd thought the forest had been lush, but the plains immediately outshine it. In the distance, he can see a vibrant-looking town.

"That's Torigoth," Nia said, nodding to it. "Been a while since I've been back here."

"Is that where you're from?" Rex asks. Nia chooses not to answer.

"If you're ready to go, then I'll take you there. After that, I'm afraid you're on your own."

Rex glances at her. "You're gonna leave us?"

"Well, yeah, thought it was pretty obvious why I can't stick around."

"Apparently not," Malos says. 'Apparently not' is right—he can't see any reason for them not to stick together. Strength in numbers is important, after all, but he can't force Nia to do anything.

"Can't make you stay if you don't want to, but you can travel _with_ us, you know." Rex leans against the fence, legs still shaking from the climb.

Nia doesn't respond. Instead, Dromarch breaks the silence. "My lady, if everyone is able, we should get going to avoid the rain." He's right that it looks like it's going to rain; angry clouds stretch across the far horizon and threaten bad weather at any moment.

"Let's get going, then," she says, straightening and following the slope downwards. "We'll want to keep moving once we reach the plains, you don't want to know what happens to people who aren't careful out there."

Something in the way she says it convinces Rex that his best option is to just accept her words and follow her. She has a guarded look about her, one he's not sure comes from the thought of whatever monster's out there. It takes all his effort not to trip over his own feet thanks to his shaky legs, anyhow, so he focuses on that instead of prying further into something Nia's clearly unwilling to talk about.

For all her confidence in navigation, Nia seems keen on taking the most winding route possible to Torigoth. Or rather, she'd been making a straight path for the city, then suddenly decided to change directions like she'd seen something.

"Couldn't we just walk straight there?" Malos asks impatiently when she ducks around another giant tree and leads them underneath a rather impressive tree root.

"Trust me, I'm not leading you three around just to waste time. That bird you saw flying around back there could kill any of us just as easily as you breathe." True, Rex had seen a bird, but her claims seem a bit exaggerated. "More importantly, keep an eye out for—"

"My lady!" Dromarch says suddenly, ears flicking. Hers flick too moments later, and her eyes go wide. She mounts Dromarch without a second thought.

"We need to run." The gravitas to her tone is all Rex needs to prepare himself to bolt. Whatever they'd heard, it's enough to instill fear in Nia. Dromarch leads them along the side of the cliff with searching eyes. "Come on, where is the—"

Rex can't help but ask about the situation. "Nia, not to distract here, but what exactly are we running from?" Whatever it is, it's nowhere in sight, at least not yet.

She hisses, now frantically looking for something on the wall. "Do you see a little cave anywhere nearby? I swear there used to be one here. We need to hide there immediately. There's no way you can outrun him."

"Clearly there's danger," Malos says, "wouldn't it be better for you to actually tell us who "he" is?"

"Rotbart," she says.

"Rotbart?" Rex repeats. Just when he thinks Nia might be a little bit paranoid, he notices the shadow at the other end of the small valley. Obscuring the light is the largest gogol Rex has ever seen, and not by any small margin. Rotbart is easily the size Gramps used to be or larger, and his hand large enough to crush all of them in a single fist.

"Come on! I can't find the cave, we have to make a run for it _now_."

Rex and Malos both nod.

"Hold on, Gramps," Rex says, bolting moments after Dromarch and Malos do. He severely regrets not asking to take more time to let his legs rest. _Don't think, just follow Nia and Dromarch. Run as fast as your legs can handle._

Instinct isn't enough to protect him when he hears the padding of monstrous feet chasing him. _No, no, don't come this way_ —

The adrenaline fueling Rex spikes when he feels his ankle twist and slip out from underneath him and he's sent crashing to the ground. He barely manages to let out a shout as his face hits the ground, and Malos turns to look at him.

"Hold on, Rex!" he says. _Hold on for what_?

Rotbart is getting closer, closer, and Malos must not be thinking clearly, because he runs straight towards Rex. What is he doing? They're both going to die!

Malos doesn't try to help Rex up like he expects. Instead, a dark power sparks to life in his hand and he leaps over Rex. Rex turns to watch in horror as Malos meets Rotbart's hand with a punch that might have cracked a jawbone had it connected with a human's face instead. "Malos!"

Rotbart lets out a pained shriek when Malos's fist connects with him and physically recoils. Rex's blood runs cold as he watches the power spread from Malos's fist and literally _consume_ the lower half of Rotbart's arm. Anything the darkness touches that isn't Malos is disintegrating before his eyes, and Rotbart reaches for the disintegrating arm with his other hand, only for that arm to begin disintegrating too once it touches the darkness.

Doesn't he know he's making it worse by grabbing at his face like that? Architect, the way he's _screaming_ —

Oh Architect, he grabbed at his face, he's getting louder—silence falls over him after a few moments, followed by the thunderous thud of what's left of his body. The cries echo in Rex's head long after the thud. Malos turns to him and offers him a hand up, but he can only stare at Rotbart's half-eaten corpse with tears threatening to spill over.

 _So this is the power of an aegis._


	3. Affinity

**A/N: I didn't forget to finish crossposting until this was up to date, not at all. :x I've got nine chapters in total posted on ao3 if y'all don't want to wait until I get myself to deal with fixing the formatting for all nine chapters lol**

* * *

Rex can't tear his eyes away from Malos's back once he finally collects himself enough to continue to Torigoth. Even the thought of eye contact is impossible, and not just because of their height difference.

He could have tried to move past Malos's involvement in the war. After all, he'd been trying to help. Countless people dead, but more would be if not for him. But Rotbart…

He's grateful for Malos saving his life (twice now), and he won't forget it, not with the core crystal thrumming with energy in his chest, but the power he used was… gruesome. Is that what he'd done to the tree before? How many people have died like that, watching their bodies disintegrate before their eyes, powerless to stop it? How many living things has he used it on? How is—

"—your ankle?" Malos's voice cuts through his thoughts.

He stumbles in his surprise. "Sorry, what was that? I was thinking." He quietly wishes for the conversation to be short. The more he talks to Malos, the more he gets stuck on Rotbart. Were he not Malos's Driver, would he have run from him? Would he be more scared than he is now?

"You twisted your ankle when you fell, didn't you?" He nods to Rex's foot.

Come to think of it, he had, but he doesn't remember mentioning it. Malos must be pretty observant to notice something like that. "Yeah. I'm fine. We're almost to Torigoth, anyhow. By the way, Gramps, are you alright?" He'd be surprised if Gramps _hadn't_ gotten hurt somehow, and any topic that took the focus off him was one Rex would bring attention to right now.

"I'm alright. Thank you for your concern." Come on, Gramps, you were supposed to have more to say. Now he's got to continue the conversation somehow.

"Yeah, of course," he says. Mercifully, Malos's attention leaves him.

Gramps, however, continues to talk. "Are you sure you're alright? You appear to have quite the tangle of thoughts."

He has to ask. "Do you think Malos has used that power on _people_?"

"That's not a question I can answer. You'd have to ask him yourself," Gramps says. He's right, but Rex was hoping for more reassurance.

"I do not think, however, that Malos would have done so if he didn't feel it was necessary to."

The answer only turns his stomach. "That doesn't make it right. How do you think it felt, for Rotbart to…"

"He must have been in a lot of pain, by the way it sounded."

Rex falls silent. He doesn't like the sound of that.

"He did save your life, Rex," he continues gently. "You should probably thank him."

"I know! It's just... Can we stop talking about this?" He's certain Malos can hear them, and he's not wanting to have that conversation yet. Not before he can process his thoughts. Not that he has any idea how long that'll take him.

They come to a stop at the gate to Torigoth. Nia climbs off Dromarch's back and turns to the others, stretching languidly. "Alright. I can take you to the inn, and then it's goodbye from there."

Rex considers trying once again to change her mind, but who's he to force her into something she clearly doesn't want?

He keeps his mouth shut and follows her into town. Torigoth bustles with people. It reminds Rex of Goldmouth, how everyone had somewhere to be or something to do, only it's somehow both more relaxed and more rigid than Goldmouth. He can't remember the last time he saw so many soldiers in such a short span of time.

"What's with all the soldiers?" he finds himself asking.

"Gormott's a province of the Ardainian empire," Nia answers. "If I had to guess, they're probably setting up for Driver recruitment. Probably running out of potentials to recruit from their own ranks. Come on, no sense staying to watch. We can avoid the crowds this way."

She weaves her way through the outskirts of the crowd. Thanks to Malos and Dromarch, who are naturally intimidating, people are quick to make room for them to get through.

Nia looks around restlessly as she leads them to a backstreet—does she not like crowds or something? Come to think of it, she had been avoiding drinking with most of the crew back on the Maelstrom, maybe that's why?

"Nia, are you sure about going off on your own?" Malos asks. "Not sure that's the greatest idea for you."

Huh. Never expected him to be the one trying to keep her on board.

She snorts. "What, you don't think Dromarch and I can handle ourselves?"

"To be frank, you haven't convinced me. You'd need a bit more than climbing trees to survive on your own you know, especially since you seem keen to avoid people."

She crosses her arms across her chest. "That's not—"

"Stop right there!" A voice cuts through Nia's indignant response. She freezes. Rex immediately looks around. Other than the three soldiers at the other end of the street, there's no one around that he could be talking to.

"Are you talking to us?" He tilts his head curiously.

Nia grabs his arm. "Are you okay to run?"

"What? Why would we—"

"Don't ask questions," she hisses. "There's no time for that. They're after me—this is what I was talking about when I said I can't stay with you guys."

"After you? Nia, what's going on?"

"Stop talking! Nobody moves!" The soldier in the center approaches, and Rex instinctively backs away. A turn of his head lets him see another several soldiers approached, guns at the ready. _It's just one thing after another today, isn't it?_

"That fugitive in your company is a member of the terrorist group Torna," he continues. "Gormotti driver, white beast-form Blade." It's as if he's checking items off a list as he inspects their little group. What does he mean, "terrorist"? Nia saved his life, she's not some _murderer_.

"Rex, Dromarch and I are going to make our move. If you want to run, do it when we attack." Nia hisses her plan just loudly enough for him to hear.

"We're not gonna run, you know," he says, shifting into a battle stance.

"And you, boy." It's really hard to focus on anything this soldier is saying when he's got a gun pointed at Rex, but somehow he manages to pay attention. "What's your Driver registration number?"

"My what?" What the hell is he talking about, registration number?

"New Drivers need to register with Indol by law. We'll see what the consul has to say about an unregistered Driver running around."

Nia slowly shifts into a battle stance, hands on her weapons in preparation. "Well, guess now you don't have a choice. On my count, be ready to attack."

"Right." For all his bravado, Rex isn't sure how this is going to go. He's not thrilled at the thought of battling alongside Malos. What if he uses that power on someone else?

"No use resisting," one of the soldiers taunts. "We have you outnumbered."

Malos laughs at that. Does he realize the situation? "I've taken on a lot worse than a few imperial soldiers. Try us."

"Malos, don't _taunt_ them," Rex scolds. He's trying _not_ to get into an unnecessary fight, thank you very much.

"Not sorry. Worst comes to worst, I can always—"

" _Don't_." Rex cuts him off before he can even think about it, horror seeping into his voice. It's not hard to pick up that Malos is talking about using that power again.

"Now!" Nia says. Rex draws his sword, going for the nearest soldier, but he doesn't feel the rush of ether that he'd been getting used to when battling alongside Malos. A quick glance shows that Malos is trying, but the link isn't reaching him for some reason.

"Malos, what's going on?" Rex asks as he slides past a soldier's attempts to grab him. He makes a swipe, but the sword is still dormant.

"Why are you asking me? It's stopping at you." Even without ether, the sword is still a sword, right?

"Why would it stop at me?" It's not like he's trying to stop it from forming, in fact, it would be really helpful to have right about now. The hit he lands on a soldier does almost nothing, only sending the man stumbling backwards.

"I was afraid of this," Gramps says, gripping the helmet to avoid falling out. "Rex, how are you feeling about Malos after seeing him kill Rotbart?"

What's that got to do with anything? He's already talked to Gramps about this. "What do you mean?"

"If you're afraid of Malos's power, you may be rejecting it without realizing. The affinity link between Driver and Blade relies on your relationship to one another. If you can't trust your Blade, he won't be able to transfer ether to you."

Malos effortlessly pushes a soldier to the side, swooping in to take care of one who's going for Rex. "We can talk about this later. Since we can't link, we'll have to improvise. How are you with that sword?"

"I can handle this without ether, if that's what you're asking." As if to prove a point, he lands a well-placed blow on a soldier's arm, sending the man in question stumbling backwards.

"Good," Malos says. "Then I expect you to handle it."

"As if you had to tell me." As long as it stays like this and no one else shows up, there's no way they won't be able to deal with these guys.

Like they've been cursed, a wall of blue flames erupts around them, stemming from the opening of the alleyway. Walking towards them is a woman in a form-fitting purple dress. As she gets closer, it becomes evident that she's a Blade—her purple hair is tinged with the same blue flames that entrap them. At her side, she carries a pair of segmented swords.

She doesn't need to open her eyes to look right through them as she comes to a stop at the sight of Rex. Or, now that he thinks about it, it's more probable that she's looking at Malos, who stands behind him and doesn't seem even slightly intimidated by the fact that their only hopes of an easy escape are currently being burnt by this Blade.

"Keep your guards up," Dromarch says. "That's Brighid, the Jewel of Mor Ardain. She's known as the most powerful Blade in the empire."

"Brighid!" Malos holds his hands up in an almost welcoming manner. "I take it you don't remember me?" Remember him? Have they met before?

Brighid ignores his question. "Interesting. I'd heard that there was a commotion with some Drivers, but I wasn't expecting to find the Aegis among them."

"We're just passing through," Malos says. "Really, all this bravado is getting annoying."

"I'd have expected you to be used to this kind of treatment by now," she says.

"If she's a Blade, where's her Driver?" Rex keeps his eyes locked on Brighid.

"My Driver is otherwise engaged at present. I will handle you alone."

"She's not got a Driver? How can she…" She shouldn't be able to battle them without a Driver, right? Then again, Malos could handle everything without him, and Dromarch had helped him in fending off creatures while looking for Nia and Malos in the forest, but even so…

One of the soldiers laughs. "The Jewel of Mor Ardain doesn't need a Driver to crush the lot of you!"

"Captain Padraig. We are to take them alive." Brighid draws her sword. Can she seriously fight in a dress like that? It can't be easy for her to move around in, especially when she's in heels like that.

Then again, he supposes you don't need much movement when you can create fire. He's got to commend her control, really, the flames don't seem to be burning any of the wooden architecture.

"Roger, Lady Brighid!" One soldier—Captain Padraig, apparently, nods to two soldiers, who salute and run off. Are they bringing reinforcements?

For a brief moment, Rex's sword sputters to life. Has Malos been devoting energy to trying to form the link even knowing that Rex is the problem?

He shakes off the thought and prepares himself as Brighid approaches with swords at the ready. She's made her intent clear, and like hell if he's going down without a fight and letting anyone get to Malos, Nia, or Dromarch. Malos may be able to handle almost anything on his own, but that doesn't mean he should have to.

Brighid attacks mercilessly, with quick movements and blazing fire that seems fake until she cracks a sword into a whip and it leaves a nasty burn on his arm. He retaliates, striking the moment even a bit of ether manages to seep its way through the weak link he holds with Malos.

"Rex," Nia says when they end up back to back, "can you and Malos keep focus on her? Fire's not a good matchup for me an' Dromarch."

He's not sure, honestly. He knows for fact that Malos could take out Brighid with no issue, after seeing what he's capable of, but…

"You can't beat her without ether," Malos says. He's still doing what he can to maintain any semblance of a link, but he's forced to handle some of the soldiers with his fists so Rex can focus on Brighid. "There's a reason they say she's the strongest in Mor Ardain."

"In the past?" Right, he's at least five hundred years old. He dares to look over his shoulder at Malos mid-battle to speak. The moment he does, a flame licks at his cheek, dangerously close to his eye.

"Eyes on your opponent," Malos chastises immediately. He hadn't even been looking, how had he known— "I can get us out of here, but I'll be using that power—"

"No!" Rex says, horrified. "We'll find some other way. Just… not like that."

"I get that you're a good kid or whatever," Malos says, "but we don't have any other option here. Stop wasting time or you'll get yourself killed. There's only so many times I can save your ass."

Maybe he's being ridiculous. Malos could get them out of this easily. "I _know_ , just give me a chance to think of something!" He swings his sword in a wide arc, scanning the arena Brighid's created with her flames in hopes of finding an opening. The only area she's left without a wall of fire to block their escape is the city wall, which doesn't look very climbable if you don't have claws.

Before Rex can find a solution to this predicament, Malos shouts and shoves him. He hits the ground shoulder-first. He's ready to say a few choice things to Malos, but then he sees Nia get entangled by some strange net, which wraps her up with enough force that she hits the ground.

Moments later, a second net hits its mark, wrapping Dromarch up just as efficiently as Nia is. Before Rex can find the source of the nets, which appear to pulse with some unknown light, a nearby pipe just above Brighid suddenly explodes, drenching her with water.

For a second, he thinks she's hissing, but when the flames surrounding them fizzle out, he realizes that he's hearing the steam from the water. She looks around for the source, but it's not clear if there even was one.

Nia, however, is actually hissing. Whatever the net is, it doesn't give to any amount of struggling, and Dromarch's attempts to use arts fizzle out much like the fire has.

"Rex, you and Malos need to run," Nia says. "I don't care about your sensibilities or whatever, leave Dromarch and me behind! We'll make it out somehow."

Dromarch grunts as he fights against the net. "Whatever these are, they appear to be absorbing ether between me and my lady."

"I can't just leave you behind!" Rex says, placing himself between them and Brighid. Now that he has a free moment to look, he can see the two soldiers from earlier, each holding a launcher of some kind. Rex assumes they used the launchers to fire the nets at Nia and Dromarch.

One cackles. "How are you finding those ether nets? Try resisting when you can't get any ether flow to your weapons."

"Listen, Rex, we need to get out of here," Malos says. "I don't say this, ever, but we can't fight her like this. We can come back for Nia and Dromarch, but no one can help us if we get captured."

He hates to admit it, but there really is no help for them if they manage to get Malos caught up in one of those nets. With a deep breath, he relents.

"We'll be back for you, okay?"

"Not counting on it," Nia says as Rex and Malos run past them.

They follow the dirt path into a wooden area, past an open door where a Nopon begs their attention. "Friends come in here! Tora help you escape!"

Rex glances at Malos, who nods. The Nopon swings the door shut behind him and locks it just in time.

They listen for several moments as the thudding of feet echoes through the corridor. Rex holds his breath as he waits for silence. The moment it comes, the Nopon releases his own breath and speaks. "Friends come this way. This back door to house of Tora!"

They're in too deep now to have another option, so Rex and Malos follow him down the hallway. At the end is a cozy little house, probably the perfect size for a Nopon. From where Rex stands, he can see what can only be described as a mess. The kitchen and dining area are relatively clean, but everywhere else has some kind of clutter, namely papers and various tools.

"Thank you for saving us," Rex says. "So you're… Tora, you said? Why'd you help us?"

"Tora never like those big bully soldiers, and, meh…" Tora turns away from them bashfully. "Always think Drivers are so cool! Driver and Blade make big power when join spirits! Want to be like cool Driver!"

Malos sounds less amused. "You saved us because you think Drivers are cool?"

"That right!"

"Well, I'm Rex, and this is Malos and Gramps." Rex gestures to the two respectively, prompting Gramps to wave. "It's nice to meet you, Tora." There are worse reasons to save someone, anyway, and Rex really doesn't think there's room to complain when they could also have gotten captured.

"Rex-Rex is so lucky to have powerful Blade!" Tora flaps his wings feverishly, his feet barely leaving the ground. Rex isn't sure, but he thinks he can see stars in Tora's eyes.

His words leave a bitter taste in Rex's mouth. "Yeah, lucky." How lucky can he be? He can't even properly link with Malos, and so far all he's managed to do is get saved by Malos.

Malos glances at Rex. He's thankful for the fact that he chooses not to address it while Tora continues to gush.

"So, Tora, d'you have any idea where those soldiers might have taken someone they've arrested? You probably know Torigoth much better than Malos or me."

Malos crosses his arms. "We're going to rescue them, then?"

"Of course. Can't just leave her there, after all."

He smiles. "Finally, you're making good decisions."

Tora quieted for a moment. "No idea where big bullies take friend. Tora have to ask around town for that!"

"Maybe it's not in town…?" Gramps hums as he considers the thought. "Can't say I have much experience in breaking people out of jail."

Rex sighed. "Makes sense. Haven't been here long, but I haven't noticed any place like a jail here."

"Hmm… Tora and friends think about it later! Now time for food!"

"Can't we handle that later? I'd like to find Nia and Dromarch as soon as possible." He gets that people have needs, but shouldn't they be more urgent about this? There's no telling what could be happening to Nia and Dromarch right now, after all, and…

"You haven't eaten anything yet today, kid. Can't do anything for them like that. I can cook something for everyone if it's going to be an issue."

"Malos, you can cook?" He shouldn't even be surprised anymore. Is there anything he can't do?

He scoffs. "Of course I can cook. You act like it's hard."

"Tora not have skills for complicated dish, so may have to clean things for cook." Tora walks over to a box in the kitchenette and points to it. "Ingredients in box!"

Malos walks over and begins rustling through the box. "Yeah, I can work with this."

"Well, while Malos cooks, may I speak with you, Rex?" Gramps climbs out of his helmet and flutters over to Tora's dining table to sit. He stretches out a bit while waiting for a response.

"Oh, yeah, no problem. Is this meant to be private?" He can't say he's thrilled at the prospect. This is about the closest that Gramps ever gets to a serious "we need to talk" moment, and he's pretty sure he knows what it's about.

"No, here is fine. It's for the best that Malos hears it, seeing as he's your Blade."

That's enough to confirm Rex's suspicion about this chat. He takes a seat nearby and nods for Gramps to go ahead. Malos is chopping some kind of fruit in the background, but it's not hard to tell that he's listening. Not like there's anything else to listen to.

"To put it simply, you need to work on your relationship with Malos."

Simply, right. "Work…?"

"As I was saying during battle, the reason Malos cannot transmit ether to you is because you don't trust him. A Driver needs to trust his Blade, and the Blade, the Driver." Gramps crosses his arms as he speaks. "Are you sure there's no problems you may have with him?"

"Problems?" Maybe he should have taken this somewhere private, after all. "No, no, nothing of the sort!"

"Are you sure? If I recall, you had no problems fighting with him against Mythra." Gramps peers right past his facade.

He flounders for a moment. "Well, that was before—"

"Are you seriously going to try to pretend like nothing's wrong?" Malos chops through something especially hard, sending the slice to the floor. "Your Blades can tell when the affinity link dies because of the Driver, you know. I don't know what the hell is up with you, but I know that you've decided that you don't trust me." He looks over his shoulder at Rex, whose posture stiffens accordingly.

Rex tries to redirect his attention to anything else, which results in him watching Malos's impressive knifework. Shouldn't he be looking at the knife when he's cutting so qui—

"Can't you be bothered to look at me when I'm talking to you?" Malos snaps. "Whatever problems you have with my power, I'm going to need you to get over it. Your friend was captured because you refused to let me use it, and had I not used it on Rotbart, we'd all be dead right now."

"Mehmeh, Tora go clean up now! Friends not mind Tora!" Tora, smart Nopon that he is, makes the decision to bow out before he somehow gets caught up in the conversation.

Rex is a bit too scared to say anything for a moment, but he at least manages to look Malos in the eyes now. "…Have you used it on people before?" He asks finally.

"I don't use that power on living beings unless I don't have another choice. Believe it or not, you're not the first Driver that wasn't necessarily fine with the thought of a power that destroys everything it touches." He turns back to his knifework. "Had there been time to figure out how to get you out of that situation without using it on that thing, I would have, but fact is, you were moments away from death."

Gramps leans forward. "Rex, if you can't yet move past Malos's power, maybe it's better for you to resonate with a second Blade."

"A second Blade?" The subject change is a nice distraction. "You mean like, resonating with another core crystal?"

"Yes. Many Drivers choose to resonate with more than one Blade," he says. "For various reasons, but you may find it easier to build affinity with another Blade instead of having to rely on Malos."

"It's not like with Malos, right? I'm not sure if I know how."

"You're a Driver. Whether or not you had the potential before, you do now," Malos says. "It's not hard, just grab the thing and focus."

"Okay, next question. Where do I even get a core crystal to resonate with?" They're not exactly common if you're not looking to join the military.

"Tora can help!" Now that Malos is calm, or at least quiet, Tora's ever eager to be useful to the conversation. "Tora have crystal from try to be Driver! Tora give to Rex-Rex since not have potential anyway."

"That's very kind of you, Tora," Gramps says.

Tora shuffles around the clutter on his desk. When he finally finds the glowing blue crystal, he bounds over to Rex with it. "Meheh, not big deal! Man at shop wouldn't give refund, so Tora hold onto it just in case!"

"Tora, why can't you resonate with it if you want a Blade so much?" He's never really known much about Drivers and Blades, but it seems strange that he wouldn't be able to. Come to think of it, Malos did mention something about "potential"...

Tora frowns. "Not everyone have potential for become Driver. When Tora try to become Driver, Tora's nose bleed like fountain for three days straight! Others have much worse, though."

"So not everyone can become a Driver?" That makes sense. Didn't Nia say something earlier about the empire running out of people to recruit as Drivers, too?

"It's becoming increasingly rare to find potential Drivers in Alrest these days," Gramps says.

"Rex-Rex already have Blade, so should have potential for another!" Tora extended the wing holding the core crystal expectantly. "Go on, Rex-Rex, Tora want to see crystal become Blade!"

"I don't really know what I'm doing, but I'll give it a go." The moment Rex's hand closes around the crystal, it washes over the room with a bright light. Rex feels, rather than sees, the core crystal morphing in his hand to form the handle of something heavy.

He braces himself against the unexpected weight of the weapon as the light clears. Once it's faded, he can see the greataxe that's been formed. The wind whips around him almost violently. Is it supposed to do that?

The wind stills after a few moments as the Blade slows to a stop in front of him. Was she just showing off? The Blade, along with her hair and shawl, defy gravity as she floats before Rex. She's not exactly well-covered, but… that's normal for Blades, right? He tries not to think about it.

Her eyes are sharp as she inspects Rex. "I take it you're my Driver? I'm Zenobia." She extends a hand to Rex, who hurriedly moves the axe onto his shoulder and shakes her hand.

"Yeah. My name's Rex," he says as he shakes her hand. "Nice to meet you."

"I won't pretend I was hoping for someone less scrawny, but you'll do! Who're your friends?"

"This is Malos, Gramps, and Tora," he says, gesturing to each of them.

"Malos, huh…?" Zenobia floats over to the man in question, looking him over once, then a second time. When she spots his core crystal, she gives him a sharp-toothed grin. "That's not a normal core crystal, Malos. Are you Rex's Blade, too?"

He nods, eyeing her. She bursts into laughter, leaning up against the counter.

When she stops laughing, she wipes at a tear and meets his incredulous stare with an even wider grin. "What's the Aegis doing cooking for a bunch of guys?"

Malos moves to the stove. "I was hungry, and I doubt any of them can actually feed themselves."

Rude. He's fed himself for five years without a problem before Malos.

"Um, Zenobia?" Rex steps towards her cautiously. "Malos and I are going to Elysium. Will you come with us?"

"Elysium, you say?" She considers it for a moment. "How refreshing. Drivers usually don't bother asking their Blades about stuff like that. I'll come with you if I can fight Malos."

"You want to… fight him?"

Zenobia laughs again. Is everything amusing to her? "Of _course_ I want to fight him. The Aegis is supposed to be ultra-powerful, right? The strongest Blade in existence? I'm going to surpass that."

"I suppose if he's okay with it, there's no reason for me to say no…" Rex rubbed the back of his neck. It should be fine, right?

"Great!" Zenobia floated back over to Malos, draping an arm over his shoulder. "What do you say, Malos?"

"Get off of me. I'm busy." He adjusts his posture to push her off without even looking up.

She reluctantly backs away so he can move around. "Well, obviously we wouldn't fight _now_. But come on, it'd be _great_ practice! Unless you don't think you can take me?"

"Are you done?" Oh, Malos is getting irritated now. Well, he was pretty irritated before, but Zenobia is pushing him to new heights.

"Nope! I'm gonna keep pushing until you fight me!"

Malos chooses not to respond to that. "Tora, where are your plates?" Tora bounds over to the kitchen to show him where things are kept.

Maybe Rex should step in. "I'm not so sure pushing him like this is a good idea, maybe you should—"

"Zenobia, was it?" Malos is adding what appears to be final touches now as Tora sets the table silently. "Care to take a guess what I did this morning?"

"I have no idea! Did you get to kill something awesome?" Her face lights up at the thought.

"I killed a gogol the size of this house by punching it a single time," he says. Rex flinches. "Maybe later I can take you to see what's left of it."

"What? I don't believe you. How is that even possible?" She appears hooked on his every word. "You're bluffing."

"Ask the kid if you don't believe me. Unless you can stand up to something that powerful, I'd abandon any hopes you have of fighting me, shut up, and eat lunch. That goes for the rest of you, too. We've got a lot of work to do if we're going to go rescue Nia."

Zenobia glances at Rex with her head tilted as if to ask, _is this guy serious?_ Rex only nods, stomach turning again at the thought of Rotbart.

She breaks into a grin. "Well then! You've given me a goal, is that a promise?"

Malos heaves a sigh as he starts serving whatever it is he's made. "I'll consider it if you can ever make it that far."

"Great! It's a deal!" Zenobia laughs, taking a seat at the table. "Don't forget me, okay?"

"Like you'd let me," he says.

As everyone sits down to eat, a thought occurs to Rex. "Come to think of it, Mythra's an Aegis too, right?"

"Right."

"But if the Aegis is a Blade, how can she have Sever? Is it possible for Blades to be Drivers, too?"

Malos entertains the thought for a moment. "You've got a point. Normal Blades can't become Drivers. The core crystal just doesn't respond."

"But," Gramps says, "an Aegis is not just a normal Blade. It's quite possible that Mythra and Malos both may have the ability to become Drivers."

"There's another Aegis?" Zenobia asks.

"Yeah," Malos says. "Not sure you want to fight her, though. She's not going to put up with you at all."

"You're going to have to get to know me better, Malos. I absolutely want to fight her."

"I don't think Mythra is interested in some friendly battle."

"You're not a very fun person, are you?" Zenobia teases. "Say, Rex, do you think we'll get to fight this other Aegis sometime?"

Is she crazy? "I mean, probably yeah, but not if we're lucky. She's ruthless."

"Oh, I like the sound of that!"

He gets the sense that there's nothing he can say that will change Zenobia's mind. He's not even sure they'd survive a second fight against Mythra. Rex returns to eating in silence.

"So, Rex," Zenobia says as she follows the man in question. "I'm curious. You've got Malos. Arguably the strongest Blade out there. Capable of pretty much anything."

"Yeah?" Rex says. They, along with Malos, are following Tora into town on a bit of a shopping trip while they try to gather information on Nia. Rex had offered to help Tora get the final parts he needed for this project he was working on, as thanks for all of the help he'd given them today.

"What did you resonate with _me_ for?"

Of course she'd ask that. "Well, it was Gramps's suggestion, but…"

"More power, right? It must be hard to make it to Elysium with only one Blade on your side," she says. "You couldn't have picked a better Blade to resonate with! Between me and Malos, we'll get there for sure!"

"Actually, Gramps suggested it because I'm having trouble linking with Malos," Rex admits.

Her face falls. "Oh, well that's no good. You need to be able to trust all your Blades, Rex, not just one. Yeah, I'm pretty strong, but if you can't even _use_ Malos… What's the problem?"

"It's just that… I can't move past the power he used against Rotbart. Er, the gogol he mentioned killing. It was… horrific. He didn't even seem to be bothered by it." He shudders at the thought. "And I can't help but wonder who he's used it on before." Everyone's right that he needs to learn to move past it, it's just so hard to think of it as a power for good when it acts so horrifically.

"So, you're afraid of his power, then. Why'd he kill Rotbart? Just because?" She can't understand where he's coming from. He gets that, though. Maybe Nia'd understand, but she's in a jail cell somewhere. He hopes she's okay.

Rex shakes his head. "No, he—"

"Actually," she cuts him off immediately, "I'm gonna talk to him about it and get the story from him first. You go handle this techno-stuff with Tora at the shop while I talk to him, 'kay?" Before Rex can even respond, she runs up to Malos and pulls him off to the side. Trying to listen to what she's saying to him is pointless, so Rex approaches the shopkeeper Tora's talking to.

"Don't suppose you've heard anything about that Gormotti Driver those soldiers captured this morning?" Rex asks tentatively as Tora shops.

He nods. "Nasty bit of business, that. The terrorist, right?" He's technically right, but that's not a word he'd apply to Nia. "Heard they're going to take her back to Mor Ardain to be executed."

 _Executed!?_ Oh no. They need to work fast. "Do you know where she'd be held, out of curiosity? I'm passing through, see, and I've always been interested in stuff like that." He's cautious about coming across as suspicious, but no amount of caution can prevent the subtle alarm that creeps into his voice.

The shopkeeper laughs. "Can't blame you for that. Seems everyone in town is interested in that girl, and for good reason. Torna's killed a lot of good people." Okay, now _that's_ gotta be wrong. Nia's not a killer. Mixed up with a bad group, maybe, but there's no way she's a killer.

"If I had to guess, they might have taken her aboard that warship outside town. Can't imagine any place less secure would work for someone like her."

"Rex-Rex, Tora found parts needed for finish big project!"

Tora could probably use a lesson or two on how not to interrupt an important conversation. "Alright, how much for them, then?"

The shopkeeper looks over the items momentarily. "Three bion connectors, and one perfect range sensor… thirty-two thousand gold, I'd say."

"What? I've got money, but not that much." He'd sent most of his advance on the recent job home to Fonsett. "Is there anything we can do to maybe bring that price down a bit?"

"No chance. Not easy to get your hands on these, you know. At most I can go down to thirty thousand."

No matter how steadfast the shopkeeper is, it won't change the fact that that's still about twenty thousand more gold than Rex has to spend. He sighs, and just as he's about to tell Tora that he can't afford _that_ much help, Zenobia slings an arm over his shoulder.

"Got anything you need killed?" She says, grinning wildly.

He looks shocked for a moment. "Are you…?"

"No, not people, if that's what you're thinking. This province has all kinds of creatures outside Torigoth, right? Some frightening, some maybe getting in the way of you receiving shipments…" Zenobia might be something of a genius.

The man thinks for a moment. "Well, you're right that there's this gogol that makes it hard to get deliveries from other villages, but you don't want to go near—"

"If you're talking about Rotbart, he's dead as of this morning, so that's not an issue. We can get proof if you'll sweeten the deal for us."

The shopkeep looks at her blankly for a moment before he shakes his head. "Can't believe I'm doing this. If you can bring me proof that he's dead, I'll charge you eight thousand for the whole lot. But it's got to be definitive proof, you hear? It won't be hard to tell if he's still out and about if you're lying."

"Consider it done, then!" Zenobia pats Rex on the back forcefully, causing him to cough.

Seriously? Eight thousand? He's dropping twenty-four thousand off the price over this?

Maybe Malos's power is more useful than he thought, if it means all they need to do to get past this is bring in some kind of proof.

"Are you going to stare at me all night?" Malos looks over his shoulder at Rex, who's been trying to say something to him ever since he woke up this morning. Honestly, he's not doing himself any favors by putting it off. Tora's in the other room, working on his robot, and Father only knows where Zenobia went off to. He's grateful for the privacy, though, as he's been trying to look over the map Tora gave them of the area and plan Nia's rescue.

Rex stutters as he's startled out of his silence. "No, I just… sorry. Wasn't tryin' to be rude." He focuses on the map in a poorly-concealed attempt to avoid eye contact. Honestly, they're going to have to work on his social skills. Does he treat everyone like this?

Malos sighs. "You know, you'd probably be better at talking to people if you started looking them in the eyes when it comes to important stuff."

"What?" Rex's eyes snap up to look at him. That's better.

"You want to say something to me, then say it. We've got time while the fuzzball works on his robot, and I'm not making much progress trying to find a route to that warship."

"It's just, I was talking to Zenobia and she was trying to, you know, help me see things from your perspective." He pauses to consider his next words. "You know how earlier, I was asking if you'd ever used that power on humans?"

Ah. So _that's_ what this is about. He was wondering why Zenobia suddenly interrogated him yesterday over the stuff with Rotbart. He supposes she must have done something right, if Rex is talking to him about it now.

"You said that your old Driver didn't like your power either. How did you… you know, move past all that with him?"

He's almost proud of Rex managing to keep an acceptable amount of eye contact when asking his question. Almost. He's more concerned about the question itself. He has to stop to think about the answer—500 years ago is a lot of time to forget things, after all, and Addam didn't make nearly so much fuss about it.

"To tell you the truth, Addam and I just—"

The lights suddenly spark, then go out completely. The sudden darkness is enough to make Malos stop talking and listen for the others. Was the storm outside really _that_ bad? Yeah, there'd been some thunder, but a power outage?

Zenobia's voice echoes out from somewhere above them. "Everything alright? I was trying to read!"

Huh. Didn't know she could read.

"Is that supposed to happen?" Rex asks.

"Friends need not worry! Lights back in just a moment," Tora calls from his workshop. Moments later, the lights flicker back on. "Poppi just needed big shock for wakey!"

"Did it work?" Rex gets up and walks into the workshop, maybe a bit too eager to see. Malos, although reluctant to admit his curiosity, follows, and soon the room is crowded as Zenobia joins in to see the unveiling.

"Come on, Poppi," Tora whispers. The robot's arms twitch momentarily before her posture straightens and her face comes to life.

"Greetings, masterpon!" The robot—Poppi—salutes flawlessly. She looks like a child, but more... rigid. "My name Poppi. Pleased to meet friends!" She waves to every person in the room individually, a bright smile on her face. He's gotta give Tora credit—it takes one intelligent Nopon to build something like this from scratch.

Rex lets out a low whistle. "Wow, she's really lifelike!"

"Meheheh, Tora spend years building Poppi!" Wow. Is he tearing up?

"Of course Poppi lifelike! Masterpon put lots of love into building of Poppi." She stands proudly. Is she taking credit for being built? "Poppi have no doubt that masterpon would not settle for less than perfect!"

"Poppi world's first artificial Blade!" Tora explains.

Okay, he'll admit it. If this "Poppi" functions like a normal Blade, that's one damn impressive feat of engineering.

"Artificial Blade?" Rex looks her over again, eyes wide. "You can fight with her?"

"That not all! Poppi programmed to do many things, even able to fly," Tora says. "Tora and Poppi would be very helpful in rescuing Driver friend of Rex-Rex!"

Rex looks shocked momentarily. "Wait, you want to come with us?"

"It least Tora can do to help friends!"

"Poppi will go where masterpon goes," Poppi adds.

"That settles it, then," Rex says, "we'll go rescue Nia and Dromarch together."


End file.
